a word about change

  "Change is the experience of going from one period of stability, through instability, to another period of stability. There are a number of myths and misunderstandings concerning why change is resisted that are worth considering.

The main myth about change is that 'people are naturally resistant to change.' There is no evidence in the research of change that it is in the nature of humans to resist change.  In fact it is well known that people enjoy and easily adapt to change under certain conditions. For example, if you discovered that you could get to work or school 5 minutes faster and save gas by going a different way, you would change to the new route without hesitation. However, if your spouse or parent or boss told you that you should go to work or school on a different route because they thought it would be better for you, you may have some hesitation to change. It is a more appropriate statement to say, 'people are normally resistant to imposed change.'

Why does this distinction matter? If you are responsible for a change initiative in your organization and believe it’s in the nature of the change participants to resist the change, then you are a victim of their nature. This assumption makes you hesitant or powerless to act on behalf of the change. However, if you believe that resistance is due to situational factors, you will focus on eliminating the environmental obstacles to change. Research has found four situational reasons people resist imposed change:

      + Comfortable with the way things are

      + Change is viewed as a threat (fear of unknown)     

      + The costs outweigh the benefits

      + Cynicism that the change will be mishandled by sponsors of the change.

Some scholars believe resistance requires breaking social habits. For one to 'break out' of entrenched patterns of behavior, they must experience disequilibrium, discomfort, and dissatisfaction. 

Ultimately, for individuals to change they must perceive the risk of status quo to be greater than the risk of the new!

 While reducing employee resistance to planned change has received the greatest attention of change scholars and practitioners, organizational reality has been found to consist of many change demands on employees that do not flow through formal change initiatives. Creating a healthy organization, one that is ecologically viable, is an overall organizational ability to renew itself, faster than competition and as the ecology demands it." 

Making change missional and inviting employees to come along has a nice ring to it!

                           exerts from